Ireland is desperate to get tourists back into the country and for a moment it looked like everything was on track with the worldwide publicity generated by the Queen and President Obama's visits and surveys left, right, and centre showing hotel prices have never been cheaper.

Then along comes pesky Eurostat and undoes all of that.

Statistics released by the European commission agency show that prices for hotels and restaurants in Ireland for 2010 were the third highest in Europe – just behind Denmark and Sweden and on a par with Finland.

Food and non-alcoholic drinks are the second dearest in Europe (just behind Denmark).

Worse, Eurostat is reporting that Ireland has the highest prices in Europe for alcohol.

None of this comes as a surprise to anyone living in Ireland where a bottle of average plonk that might cost £4.99 in the UK, costs €10.99 (£9.99) or a pint of lager that might cost £3.50 costs at least a fiver.

But it might come as a bit of a surprise to the Irish government, tourist boards and the hotel bodies who are still woefully deluded about the cost of holidaying in Ireland.